Childhood Strikes Again!

When I was about 4 or 5 years old, my cousin Conor had a battery-powered Bigfoot. It was just big enough for the two of us to fit in, and we would constantly fight over who got to drive it. For those who don’t know who (well technically what) Bigfoot is, he’s/it’s a Monster Truck. Monster Trucks are souped up trucks, cars, or even a hearse that have been fitted with tires that are over 6 ft. tall. They tour the country smashing ridiculous amounts of 80s Cadillacs and Chevys.

Around the same time that Conor and I were fighting over Bigfoot, my mom took us to a Logging Expo in Atlanta. Logging Expos are sort of like Comic Con but for loggers. There are TONS of booths selling equipment, or giving out information, but my favorite part has always been the equipment displays. Especially the ones with really big tractors that I could climb into that have lots of buttons to push and levers to play with. What was so awesome about that particular expo, though, was that Bigfoot was there. Large and in charge.

Ever since then I have wanted to see an actual Monster Truck show live in person, and not just on TV. So when my Mom called me about two weeks ago and asked if Mr. Doc and I wanted to go to the Monster Truck Jam with her and Dad, my answer was an immediate yes!

Back in the 80s & 90s, Bigfoot had one main competitor on the Monster Truck circuit: a converted hearse aptly named, Grave Digger. First seen in 1982, Grave Digger quickly rose to stardom as the main rival to Bigfoot. Now as a kid I didn’t like Grave Digger because he beat Bigfoot! To a 5 year old, that was A BIG DEAL. These days I feel a little differently.

Friday night rolled around and after a satisfying dinner at Chick-Fil-A, the four of us rolled up to the venue. Our seats were all the way in the last row but since it was stadium seating, I thought we had pretty great seats. The first thing that really hit me was the noise. That roar of a souped up engine being revved like there’s no tomorrow, and no muffler.

There were six trucks competing at that stop on the tour: Monster Mutt, an ADORABLE truck complete with tail and floppy ears, El Toro Loco, with a flame paint job and horns of course, The Turtle, a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles paintjob (Raphael to be specific), Prowler, a tiger complete with creepy eyes, and Predator, a snake truck that just couldn’t stop breaking down; I felt bad for the driver.

So, the first event is a race, two trucks starting on opposite sides of the arena. In that event the winner is determined by who can get around the track and over two sets of five cars the fastest. Grave Digger was ahead until he came up against Monster Mutt, who beat him by a nose. *giggle* Two more race type events followed and then came the Donut Competition. Basically the winner was whoever could do the best Donut. Turns out that was El Toro Loco. He did 10 consecutive spins before coming to a halt. It was pretty awesome to see. The final competition of the night was the Freestyle. This consists of the trucks going around the track, over the sets of five cars and also attempting to jump over two sedans and cargo van that have been strapped together. After a night of losing, Grave Digger pulled out all the stops and WON the Freestyle competition! I was ecstatic!

All in all it was a fun-filled night stuffed with screaming myself hoarse and being rendered temporarily deaf by the noise of engines. Now I can’t wait till next year.